Absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins, pantiliners and incontinent pads are devices that are typically worn in the crotch region of an undergarment. More specifically, sanitary napkins and pantiliners, for example, are worn by women in a pair of panties that is normally positioned between the wearer's legs, adjacent to the perineum area. Sanitary napkins and pantiliners are designed to absorb and retain body fluids or discharges (e.g., urine and menses) from the body of women and to prevent body and clothing soiling. A wide variety of shapes and dimensions of sanitary napkins and pantiliners is currently used by women for the collection of body fluids.
In order to prevent soiling, these absorbent articles must be securely maintained in close proximity to and in conformity with the body of the wearer. The maintenance of the article against the body is known as “good body contact”. Good body contact enables the absorbent articles to absorb the vast majority of body fluids before they have an opportunity to flow quickly along the body contacting surface of the absorbent articles or the skin of the wearer, thereby preventing clothing and body soiling. In order to securely maintain such absorbent articles in close proximity to the body of the wearer, the absorbent articles have an adhesive attachment means on the garment facing side of the backsheet. The adhesive attachment means is used to secure the absorbent articles in the crotch region of undergarments. The adhesive attachment means usually includes a pressure sensitive adhesive disposed on the garment facing side of the backsheet.
While absorbent articles having adhesive attachment means are convenient and comfortable, these absorbent articles still have certain disadvantages in handling for use, in particular, for thin sanitary napkins and pantiliners which have a thickness less than about 3 mm, for example. Specifically, pantiliners typically have a removable release liner which covers and protects the adhesive attachment means before use of pantiliners. Such a removable release liner is typically a sheet member and has a perimeter which is coincident with that of the backsheet of the pantiliner. Since the adhesive attachment means normally extends longitudinally to the end edge of the pantiliner (i.e., the end edge of the backsheet), it is not easy for users to initiate a removal of the removable release liner from the pantiliner by separating it from the adhesive attachment means at the end edge portion of pantiliner.
Thus, there is a need for an absorbent article that can be handled more easily for a removal of removable release liner.